2010-12-03, 03:08 AM
Herborist Wrote:Leveling up is the central focus of the game. Squirm as much as you like, it's true. You play to level; you may not ONLY play to level, and you may care about other things, but the game itself is about training.
You Lie. 5 Years. 1 Main. Level 130. Mostly a Loner. Minimal Inactivity. Still found things to do.
There are many aspects to the game other than leveling. Questing, Exploration, Collection, Party Quests, Aspiration to next equipment set (granted this is dependent on leveling){which is more or less dead now anyway thanks to common equips/potential}, and Social interactions are some. The primary problem is that NEXON kept promoting stat-whoreism to the point where people started believing that was in fact the purpose of the game and rushing past a majority of the "content" that was developed for the game for the sake of power. This has been a lingering issue for too long so now everyone just believes it as a fact that to do anything in game you have to be 140+.
BB only gives us further cause to believe in this misconception as it only aids in rushing people to the end. I have yet to experience it myself, but beyond the maps, from what I've heard they've left holes in the quests and didn't take the opportunity to revamp the "Maple World" to coincide with these changes. Since it would be too much work to re-do the entire lineage of quests since the origin of the game or even the monster book, they just decide not to.
To me that isn't professional. That isn't even a game anymore.
"Hey, if you keep pressing this button over and over again for a few years, you'll get to see bigger numbers next to a prettier picture!" If I want art, I'll find it online. If I want big numbers, I'll use a calculator. When I play a game, I want an engaging environment with a decent back-story. It being an MMO takes away some of expectation, but there is still some.
Going back on what I said earlier though, my complaints are going off of hand-me-down information. I'd love to be proven wrong.
EDIT: And no, having expectations from an RPG does not make us Heny Hoes.